the Dreaming
by Truly Original
Summary: Dreams were an every day part of life for Sakura. When they suddenly became interconnected vividly detailed she thought it was odd, but shrugged it off as just another quirk of her active mind. Nagato, the man that is her constant companion in these dreams, knows different. Armed with this knowledge it is his goal to open her mind to a whole new world.


1(A.N.) Naruto does not belong to me and therefore am not receiving any gain from writing it, other that the gratification of my muse. Naruto belongs to Kishimoto and his affiliates. I am just borrowing them to amuse myself.

I was digging through my files, deleting the crappiest ones and editing some of the ones I wanted to keep. This little opening chapter was just sitting there; waiting for me to post it. So here is the first chapter of a story that'll probably be about five chapters long.

For a while, my posts will be opening chapters and one shots that shall be posted as I come across them for a bit of winter-cleaning. Winter-cleaning is a lot like spring cleaning but a lot colder and usually done in front of a computer; because it is too damn cold to do anything else. So here for your viewing pleasure, or not:

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** The Dreaming: Chapter One, Once Upon a Dream**

Sakura shivered as her bare feet touched the freezing stone floor. Her thin camisole and matching tap-pants were little protection against the bitter chill encompassing the room. She took a quick glance at the fire place and saw that it wasn't lit. Such a thing was unusual during this time of the year; when the autumn cool was becoming the winter freeze.

The tiny figure moved to the massive bed that sat against the wall opposite the fireplace. Sakura tugged the large comforter free from it before creeping across the room to the odd metal medical contraption in the center of the bedroom. Quietly green eyes peered around it to see that her constant dream companion's eyes were closed. He was asleep then.

Her brow knitted in concern as her mind drew up hasty calculations. The room was large and difficult to heat but once the walls warmed sufficiently it took a long time to cool. That meant that the fire had been out for a while. Gently, the pink haired woman tucked the downy comforter around him, trying to secure it without disturbing the many tubes and wires that stuck out of both the chair and him.

Next she set about lighting the fireplace. Sakura knew where everything in the room was and found kindling and long matches quickly. Soon, with a little persuasion, there was a crackling, cheery fire that chased the gloom to the dark corners of the room. Another shiver ran through her and she stepped closer to the fire, in an attempt to warm up.

"You are cold."

The deep voice never failed to make her jump ten feet in the air. He was often asleep when Sakura was swept away to this world of her dreams so he surprised her when he spoke. "Nagato. You're awake." It amused her that he slept in her dream world. She was asleep but awake in these dreams. So too shouldn't he be? "How long have you been sleeping for? The fireplace was ice cold. So was your bedroom."

Nagato's head tilted slightly as he regarded her with intense grey eyes, which narrowed slightly as took her flimsy clothing and the shivers that had begun to rack her petite form. "You are cold." He repeated. Then more firmly, "Come take the blanket and cover yourself."

Sakura snorted and just stepped closer to the fire. "You've been in the cold longer than I have," she stated. "You need it more than I do."

"Sakura..."

"No."

He took in the obstreperous tilt to her chin before giving an exasperated sigh. She turned from the fire to look at him more fully when there was the skirl of metal on metal set her teeth on edge. "What the Hell do you think you're doing?"

Nagato had freed one of his painfully thin arms from the confinement of the structure and was moving to do the same with her other. "You are going to take this quilt one way or another." Sakura's heart leapt in her throat at the pained deliberateness of his actions and stomped over to stop him from hurting himself. After years of dreaming herself into this room and into his company she knew that the man; although his form was wasted and weak, his mind was anything but and that made him as pigheaded as she was. If not worse.

She stood in front of him and pulled the blanket out of his grasp. He looked satisfied with her compliance and stopped moving. His breaths were coming harshly from the exertion.

Her brow twitched. He may be the most obstinate man she had ever met but she was known to be quite hardheaded herself. She turned until she faced away from him. Then she abruptly dropped to sit in his lap, taking care to not hurt him as she shifted into a comfortable position against him, among the wires and medical tubes.

Sakura drew the heavy comforter up around them both and settled in for a long wait. She could feel the tension running through the thin body against her. She didn't face him, afraid to see displeasure on his face. Mentally she wondered if she over stepped her bounds.

For the past two years, she had appeared in the exact same room nearly every night after she had fallen asleep. They spoke about everything under the sun, after moving past the 'awkward introduction, why are you in my dreams' phase. Some nights they even played chess, with him calling out his moves and her nudging his pieces into the desired place. (He kicked her butt almost every time. Except for a few games, but she suspected that Nagato _let_ her win.)

Physical contact was a boundary they had never crossed; him because he was entrapped in the strange medical structure, and her because she was too afraid that she was going to injure him. Although it didn't escape her that she was dreaming, she still didn't want to chance it something hurting him. There was too much detail in these dreams and there was also his odd insistence that she wasn't really dreaming, despite the fact that she woke in her own bed shortly after she left this room.

The rigidity of his form beneath hers was making her think twice. Maybe he found her intrusion into his personal space offensive. Sakura was about to move off of his lap, apologizing profusely. (She could already feel her face heat up in preparation for the embarrassment.) Then he relaxed as if he'd had a current of electricity running through him that had suddenly been cut off.

A deep, hoarse chuckle left his throat. "Stubborn."

Sakura snorted in response. "Whatever you say, Mr. Black Pot."

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(An Hour Later)

Her toes touched the footboard and her fingers reached for the headboard as she gave a full body stretch. Somehow, while she slept, she had managed to maneuver herself into the middle of the queen-bed. Somewhere on her bedside table her alarm was shrilling loudly.

When she rolled over to shut it off she caught sight of the red numbers. 7:30 Although Sakura had only gotten a grand total of two hours of sleep she still felt as though she had slept for a full eight hours. Granted, she was a little groggy, but she always was until she got at least one cup of coffee in her system.

As if on cue the scent of freshly percolated coffee reached her nose. She stood up and followed her nose in a zombie like fashion and found herself in the kitchen.

'Programmable coffee pots were a stroke of genius,' she thought as prepared a cup. Sakura sipped the hot brew as she moved over to her laptop and turned it on. It was routine every morning to check the bestsellers list and see where her novels ranked on it.

A scowl crossed her face as she realized that she never took her computer to her Shikamaru for him to diagnose its problem. It was running unbelievably slow. The poor old laptop, she suspected, was probably on its last leg. She could always by a new one. Sakura was a popular enough writer that she could buy a hundred top of the line laptops without making a dent in her bank account. However, she'd been raised to be pragmatic and it almost caused her physical pain to buy a new computer when her old one was still kicking. Now, after seven years of use and abuse it seemed that she would have to give in to Shika's pained coaxing and just buy a new one.

The woman sighed. It was going to be a pain in the butt to transfer all of her files to a new one. A loud beeping noise signaled that the laptop finished booting and she slid the arrow to her user icon, punched in her password, and waited. And waited. Sakura gave a sigh of exasperation.

"Forget it," she said out loud. She had an early morning meeting to discuss her ideas for her last installment in her series. Then she had to go bug Shikamaru until he agreed to go to Staples with her. The lazy computer nerd needed to get out and do something anyway.

Forty-five minutes later Sakura found herself in the front of the Coffee Coven, her favorite coffee shop. She came here almost every morning. As usual the moment she reached the front of the ridiculously long line the man- Pein, his name tag read- behind the counter set her usual double shot espresso, extra sweet, on the counter in front of her. Her cheese Danish, as normal, was balanced evenly on the top of the black plastic lid.

"You come here often. You probably keep the shop open single-handedly"

Sakura was so startled that she almost dropped her wallet. She glanced up, away from where she was busy digging out her credit card, eyes wide. "You speak!" Although she saw the handsome, eye catching man nearly everyday this was the first words she had ever heard him speak. Well, besides," what would you like" and "that will be seven fifty." It was a shame given how attractive his voice was. Deep and smooth, it reminded her of long nights in bed.

"Indeed."

"Another word," she cried cheerfully. "Thank God. I was beginning to think that you were a robot created to make superior coffee."

Pein's lips quirked upwards slightly, almost imperceptibly, and Sakura felt her heart leap in her chest. For some odd reason he made her heart pound. She felt that the reason was something other than looks, though he was very handsome. He was so much hotter when he smiled and given how good looking the titan orange haired male already was, that was saying something.

He stood at least a foot taller than her and though his frame was slender, it was filled out with toned, hard muscle that was just visible under his black, buttoned down shirt. His face consisted of a stubborn chin and high cheek bones. An aristocratic nose sat evenly above a sensual mouth. A pair of beautiful, slate grey eyes locked on her's and her breath caught. She knew those eyes, but try as she might she just couldn't remember where.

Sakura dumbly took her credit card back when he handed it to her. She didn't even recall handing it to him. She slid the card into her wallet and her wallet in to her purse. When she realized that he was speaking to her she snapped out of the fog she had slipped into. "Whut."

"Do not forget your drink," Pein spoke calmly repeated. He had lifted the beverage off of the counter and handed it to her.

"Oh! Right! Sorry I was spacing out," she said as though she hadn't been gaping at the man like an imbecile. Sakura took the drink, her face heating up in embarrassment. She murmured a quick," Thank you," before shoving one side of the pastry in her mouth. Sound tactic, she thought. Years of disciplinary slaps upside the head had taught her not to talk with food in her mouth, so if she was eating something she couldn't say anything embarrassing.

Applying another learned method, she turned around and headed out the door, retreating. She was completely unaware of the eyes following her every step.

"That's her?" A soft voice spoke from behind Pein.

"Yes."

"She is very pretty. Funny too. What changed your mind about claiming her?

Pein turned around to face the tall blue haired woman addressing him. "She accepted me. She has yet to realize it, but she will see reason" A pleased smile twitched the corners of his mouth, one of the few emotions he had ever shown to people, save a special few.

Konan smiled at her long time friend and comrade. Although he had recognized the green eyed woman as his True Mate, he one he had waited patiently for, for far too many centuries, he had been hesitant to act upon it. It was a big change from his normal resolute nature.

"Do you think that she will be less accepting when she discovers the truth?"

"It was a concern."

"Was, but is no longer?"

"No. She will be accepting of me even then; perhaps more so." It was spoken with the absolute faith of one who knew someone's intrinsic nature.

"She'll be surprised."

"I know."

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I hope that you enjoyed reading. Please Review.


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